How Prince Harry proposed to Meghan Markle, and the story behind The Ring

You'll always know where you were and what you were doing when the usually reclusive Prince Harry of Wales and Suits actor Meghan Markle announced that we have a royal wedding to prepare for. It started out as another routine Monday, with the hands of the clock doing their usual slow dance between 11am and 11:01am—except for one happily engaged couple. The much-in-love Prince Harry and Markle decided to make things official and announced that they are set to walk down the aisle in spring 2018. You may not be invited, but we know that you've got the date marked in red in your calendar already.

After a quaint photo call with the Kensington Palace as the backdrop, the newly-engaged couple sat down for a tell-all interview with BBC's Mishal Husain. From her first reaction to the detailed specs of the ring, go ahead and shoot your questions.

How do you pop the question when you are the Prince of Wales?

“It was just a cosy night, we were roasting a chicken, when he got down on one knee. It was an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. I could barely let him finish proposing, I said—can I say yes now?” laughed Markle, while the Prince agreed, “She didn't even let me finish, she said, ‘Can I say yes, can I say yes?' I had the ring in my finger and I was like, ‘Can I give you the ring?' She goes, ‘Oh yes, the ring!' It was just the two of us and I think I managed to catch her by surprise as well.”

How did the couple first meet?

“We were introduced by a mutual friend in the beginning of July. And about three, maybe four weeks later I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana. We camped out with each other under the stars, it was absolutely fantastic,” he raved while she added, “Just to take the time to be able to go on long country walks and just talk.”

“I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly—it was a confirmation to me that all the stars were aligned. This beautiful woman literally tripped and fell into my life. I fell into her life and the fact that she will be unbelievably good at the job part of it as well is obviously a huge relief to me because she'll be able to deal with everything else that comes with it,” he affirmed.

How does one deal with all the publicity when you've only just started dating?

“It's been a year and a half since we met but I don't think I would call it a whirlwind relationship. Obviously there have been layers attached to how public it has become after we had a good five, six months almost with just privacy, which was amazing. But no, I think we were able to really have so much time just to connect and we never went longer than two weeks without seeing each other, even though we were obviously doing a long distance relationship. So we made it work.”

What does the engagement ring of the future Duchess look like?

“The ring is obviously yellow gold because that's her favourite. The main stone itself I sourced from Botswana and the little diamonds either side are from my mother's jewellery collection to make sure that she's with us on this crazy journey together,” asserted Prince Harry.

“It's beautiful and he designed it! ...Obviously not being able to meet his mom, it's so important to me to... to know that she's a part of this with us. It's incredibly special. And you know to be able to have this [thing] which sort of links where you come from, and Botswana which is important to us, and it's perfect,” the 36-year-old smiled.

What would Princess Diana and Markle have been like together?

“Oh, they'd be thick as thieves, without question. I think she would be over the moon, jumping up and down, you know so excited for me,” he gushed before adding, “It is days like today when I really miss having her around and miss being able to share the happy news. But I'm sure she's with us, you know, jumping up and down somewhere else.”

That being said, how did she first meet the Queen of England?

“It's incredible you know... to be able to meet her through his lens, not just with his honour and respect for her as the monarch, but the love that he has for her as his grandmother, all of those layers have been so important for me so that when I met her I had such a deep understanding, and of course incredible respect for being able to have that time with her,” Markle smiled.

“The corgis took to you straight away. I've spent the last 33 years being barked at; this one walks in, absolutely nothing…” he rued, with her piping in, “Just laying on my feet during tea, it was very sweet.” “… just wagging tails and I was just like argh,” the Prince finished.